Articles and Speeches

Less Taxing More Caring
03-Jun-05, Windsor Express Column.

"When asked in surveys “would we pay more tax for better public services?” the answer is generally “yes”. This is because it is tantamount to saying we are caring members of society who want to give better health and education to those who are less well off.

But perhaps the truth is exactly the opposite.

We instinctively know that governments and local councils are not as prudent with our money as we are when spending it ourselves. The more they take, the more they seem to waste; we need only look at the Millennium Dome and the European Union!

The nature of government agencies is incompatible with efficient expenditure because of the extra bureaucracy embedded into the unwieldy systems.

Spend your hard earned cash on yourself, and you’ll be naturally careful to get the best value for money. But when spending somebody else’s money on somebody else, the incentive to be careful is less innate.

Perhaps it is the impersonal nature of central and local government spending that causes the inefficiency.

The 14% hike in our local council tax over the last 2 years, is penalising the elderly on fixed incomes and less well off most of all. Is the LibDem council getting value for money when spending £10m on Maidenhead town hall and very little elsewhere in the constituency? Could less have been spent more wisely, and our council tax reduced instead?

If we care about value-for-money for taxes then we must tip the balance. People must spend more of their money more efficiently for themselves and their families. We must restrict wasteful government spending as far as possible.

I am determined to continue the fight for lower taxes, especially for the less well off. Less tax delivers a more caring society."

Adam Afriyie, MP for Windsor